Encyclopedia > Justification (typesetting)

In typesetting, justification is the setting of text or images within a column or "measure" to align along both the left and right margin. Text that is set into equal length lines and aligned along both the left and right margins is said to be "justified."

In justified text the spaces between words, and to a lesser extent between glyphs or letters, are stretched or sometimes compressed in order to make the text align on both the left and right sides. When using justification it is customary to treat the last line of a paragraph separately by simply left or right aligning it, depending on the language direction. A line in which the spaces have been stretched beyond their normal width are called loose lines, while those whose spaces have been compressed are called tight lines.

"Justification" and "Alignment" are not synonyms. The mistaken impression that they are is due to an error made in the menu structure of the popular word processing program Microsoft Word that places Left, Right, Full and Centered as choices beneath the menu item "Justification." Typographers, typesetters and graphic designers know this to be incorrect. "Justification" refers only to a setting of type aligned on both the left and right margins. Therefore the compounds "left/right/center/full-justified" are all incorrect or redundant. Correctly speaking there are four possible typographic alignments, or "settings":

Centered
Flush Left (more verbosely "Flush Left, Ragged Right")
Flush Right (more verbosely "Flush Right, Ragged Left")
Movable metal type Typesetting involves the presentation of textual material in an aesthetic form on paper or some other media. ... In language, text is a broad term for something that contains words to express something. ... In common usage, an image (from Latin imago) or picture is an artifact that reproduces the likeness of some subject—usually a physical object or a person. ... These are the astrological glyphs as most commonly used in Western Astrology A glyph is a carved figure or character, incised or in relief; a carved pictograph; hence, a pictograph representing a form originally adopted for sculpture, whether carved or painted. ... Look up Letter in Wiktionary, the free dictionary A letter is a written message from one party to another. ... In typography, a paragraph is a block of text. ... In typesetting, alignment, is the horizontal positioning and alignment of text or images within a line, typically relative to a column. ... Microsoft Word is a word processing application from Microsoft. ...

Justified

Justification can sometimes lead to typographical anomalies. When the spaces between words line up approximately above one another on several loose lines, a distracting visual pattern called a river may appear. Another problem especially prevalent when using justification in narrow columns, such as in many newspapers, is when an exceptionally large space appears between two words (called a loose line). These may often be solved through the use of hyphenation or by rewriting the text to use smaller words.

Justification has been the preferred setting of type in many western languages through the history of the written word. It's use has only waned somewhat since the middle of the 20th century through the advocacy of the graphic designer Jan Tschichold's book Asymmetric Typography and the more free treatment of typography of the Bauhaus, Dada, and Russian Constructivist movements.